CHS’s Senate plans to host its annual blood drive on Wednesday, Oct. 9 in partnership with the Versiti Blood Center of Indiana. During a school year, Senate usually hosts two blood drives: the fall blood drive and the spring blood drive. This tradition is something the club has done for at least 20 years and something they plan on continuing this year.

Nina Metaxas, chair of the Senate blood drive committee and senior, said although they are keeping some parts of the blood drive the same, they are actually planning on changing when they talk to people.

Metaxas said, “Next SRT we are going to split into teams. We are each going to take a different area of the high school and work on signing people up during SRT. Although we have been trying during lunches and I think we will always continue to try during lunches, (traveling to SRT’s) is another way that we can get as many people signed up that are passionate about the blood drive.”

Michelle Foutz, Senate sponsor and social studies teacher, said it was really important to her that the senators get people to sign up. According to Foutz, they have faced problems in the past where a large number of people have signed up and very few have gone.

She said, “We are saving lives. We have one of the biggest blood drives, if not the biggest blood drive in our community. I know that the week before the blood drive the blood center has a meeting with hospital administrators. They are literally planning surgeries around our blood drive because of the number of units that our community will be receiving on Oct. 9.”

Despite their new efforts and the service the drive provides to the community, both Metaxas and Foutz said they face some resistance from the general student population because of false fears about eligibility and the pain of drawing blood. 

However, Metaxas said she believes the spirit of donating blood is still very alive within the school.

“My grandpa was really passionate about donating blood. He had a crazy goal of donating blood every 55 days, (the minimum wait time between donations). I have always been really passionate because of him. However, I know what a lot of what people hear about the blood drive is ‘I passed out,’ ‘I thought I was going to die,’ and all these crazy stories. Then, you have someone like Griffin Gonzalez who passed out straight on his face. He was eager to sign up every time. It just depends on who you talk to,” Metaxas said.